http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.fire2feb23,0,1771885.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
February 23, 2006
NORWALK -- The Common Council's Personnel Committee last night offered kind words for the proposed firefighters' contract but did not make a formal recommendation on how the full legislative body should vote on the pact Tuesday night.
Chairman Herbert Grant said the pact, which includes a 12 percent retroactive raise and a special pension plan, "has merits," but committee members need to discuss it further in party caucuses Monday night.
The Personnel Committee's unanimous vote to forward the contract to the full council came after a 45-minute closed-door discussion among the four committee members present and Mayor Richard Moccia, Fire Chief Denis McCarthy, representatives of the personnel, finance and law departments, and the city's actuary, Rebecca Sielman.
Moccia said after the meeting that he did not want to read anything into the Personnel Committee's vote but appeared optimistic. The contract would automatically go into effect if the full 15-member council does not take action by March 16.
The Republican mayor's slim 176-vote victory over incumbent Democrat Alex Knopp in November has been attributed to the firefighter union's endorsement of Moccia after members voted down Knopp's contract offer.
The last firefighters' contract expired in 2002. The union ratified Moccia's offer Feb. 4.
Neither Grant nor fellow Democrat Gwenn Briggs last night were willing to say they planned to vote in favor of the contract next week, but Briggs said she appreciated the cost-savings some union health insurance concessions would produce for the city.
Finance Director Thomas Hamilton has said the proposal would save the city about $295,000 per year through a change in health care plans, health care contributions from firefighters and an increase in co-pays for prescription drugs.
Republican Council members Joanne Romano and Richard McQuaid said they will cast yes votes.
"It's cost-effective," Romano said.
The pact provides a 12 percent retroactive increase in pay for firefighters: 2 percent from July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2002; 2 percent from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004; 4 percent from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005; and 4 percent from July 1, 2005, until the contract expires June 30.
It also would allow firefighters with 25 years of service to put 85 percent to 90 percent of their retirement benefits into a separate account for up to five years while they are still on the job.
Unlike regular employees, the pension benefits of these Deferred Retirement Option Plan participants do not grow by 2.5 percent per year but are frozen when they get on the plan.
An analysis by Sielman said that for 80 percent of 137-member staff, the plan would be cost neutral for the city -- it would not cost the firefighters pension fund any more than the current retirement plan.
Under the worst-case scenario, if 21 of the department's most senior members sign on by March 1, the plan could cost the city nearly $2.2 million more over the next 23 years, the report stated.
Some of that cost, however, would be offset by a decrease in cost to the pension fund because the more senior firefighters would no longer be active members.
In the first year of the plan, then, the city would pay an additional $142,000 into the pension fund, but that would be offset by a $180,000 reduction in costs for the members who are no longer active. That reduction in costs would decline rapidly, the report stated.
"This means that in the very short term, the proposed DROP window would decrease the city's contributions very slightly, but in the longer term the city's contribution would be higher," the report states.
Council members, particularly Democrats, have been wary of so-called "cost-neutral" DROP plans since one offered by Knopp to the police department a few years ago wound up costing more than anticipated.
Knopp's subsequent decision not to offer the fire union a DROP plan was one of the reasons members rejected his contract offer last year.
Grant and Briggs said they had a better understanding of the DROP offering to the fire department after last night's discussion with the actuary.
In a phone interview yesterday, staff with the state's Freedom of Information Commission asked how the Personnel Committee could discuss the contract in executive session since Moccia has made the pact public and, technically, negotiations have ended.
In interviews before last night's meeting, Grant and Corporation Counsel Peter Nolin said the discussion was expected to involve details about how Moccia and the union negotiated the document, as well as some talk of Knopp's rejected contract offer -- items that can be considered collective bargaining details and kept from the public in case similar strategies are used in the future.
"If they want to debate the pros and cons of entering into the agreement, however, it should be on the record," Nolin said.
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